per mangiare

I love food, as anyone who sees me can probably guess.  I am on a mission to find the best and cheapest spots to eat in Florence, and I hit gold twice this weekend.  On Thursday, Cat and I met up and grabbed lunch at Trattoria Anita, which is hidden away in the block just north of the Arno between the Bargello and Via de' Benci.  It prides itself on being authentic Italian housewife (casalinga) cooking, and offers two courses and a contorno for €8.  The potatoes roasted in butter and sage nearly fell apart like mashed potatoes, and the stewed tripe was stewed well.  Simple food done perfectly.  Another casalinga spot is Trattoria Casalinga near Santo Spirito, which has been discovered, but is also good and relatively inexpensive.  The other week I had the rabbit there.  They had removed most of the meat from a dressed rabbit, made it into sausage, and then restuffed the rabbit with the sausage.  They roasted and sliced the rabbit vertically like a loin and served it with salt and olive oil.  It was fantastic.  The other place I hit this weekend was Trattoria Mario by mercato centrale.  I meant to go there five years ago, and it finally came together on Friday.  Trattoria Mario is a local hangout, and it can take time to get a table.  It's only open for lunch, and like the others, the meal was inexpensive, simple, and of excellent quality.  It was raining and cold on Friday, so I ordered a bowl of ribollita, a traditional Tuscan bean stew made with black cabbage and stale bread.  I spent an hour eating, sharing a table with two couples, and debating theology and church history with a friend.  If you want to find an excellent a relatively inexpensive bistecca fiorentina, try Mario for lunch on Saturday.  Go early, order wine, and make a Saturday out of it.

The next two places I want to try are Trattoria Giovanni and Cibreino.  One of the secrets to eating in Florence is finding the best restaurants' "sister" restaurants, which usually share the same kitchen, are more vibrant and clustered, and less stuffy and expensive.  Trattoria Giovanni is owned by the same folks who run Il latini, which is one of Florence's best and most expensive.  At Il latini, from what I hear, there is no menu, they just feed you, course by course, ending only when you ask for the check.  Another famous restaurant in Florence is Cibreo, and it has a trattoria, Cibreino, attached to it on the other side of the block.  The two share its kitchen, and Cibreino offers the same but limited menu of Cibreo, charges standard prices, and serves one of the best meals that the human race offers.

When you want to stay in and cook, the open markets offer excellent ingredients, usually fresh from the surrounding countryside.  You can find anything nearly anything there, from obscure fish and spices to fine wines and organ meat.  The markets are beautiful places places, saturated with the noise, color, and smell, and the people watching, a national past-time in Italy, is unmatched.